# Nested childs vs joining queries

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/nested-childs-vs-joining-queries/60614>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [September 15, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/nested-childs-vs-joining-queries/60614 "2016-09-15T14:04:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![maxs15](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed8c4c/32.png) [@maxs15](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/maxs15)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/nested-childs-vs-joining-queries/60614/1 "2016-09-15T14:04:05Z")

</div>

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some wisdom of the elastic community 🙂

Considering an app performing matching (like Tinder for instance). Would it be better to store the likes/dislikes of each user in a nested array or in a different document (using has\_child for queries).

I'm aware that joins are expensive but in the case of the nested array, ES will reindex the all user everytime an user is liked/disliked.

Is it the typical case where joins should be used ?

Thanks for your help

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/nested-childs-vs-joining-queries/60614/2 "2017-07-05T22:19:59Z")

</div>